CASTRIES, St Lucia (CMC):

Trade and Industry Minister Guy Mayers has criticised regional countries for their failure to come up with solutions to deal with the rising cost of living in the Caribbean.

Mayers, who attended last weekend's Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) meeting in Guyana where the issue was discussed, said representatives were supposed to have presented a list of goods that would have been placed under price control, but not everyone came prepared for that meeting.

"When we met in Guyana in December along with the Heads of Government it was felt that this was a matter that ought to be given urgent consideration and attention and everyone was urged to deal with the issue expeditiously.

"So I was dumbfounded and really angry that we came to a meeting last week in Guyana and there were governments that were still not ready, giving excuses that they were having difficulty acquiring information from their respective departments," Mayers added.

Some resolution

He said that it was the feeling of many delegates that regional governments should have pulled out all the stops to ensure that the matter was dealt with urgently allowing for some resolution at the meeting in Guyana last week.

Mayers said that another meeting has been scheduled for February where hopefully a solution would be discussed.

"There is a special COTED meeting planned for the 27th and 28th February at which we are hoping that we can arrive at a consensus to that problem," he added.

Mayers said that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat has urged all countries to submit the necessary information to draw up the list of goods to be placed under price control, taking into consideration as well the measures outlined in the Common External Tariff .

A statement issued by the CARICOM Secretariat said that member countries had been requested "to submit national lists of items on which they would be prepared to reduce or remove the Common External Tariff (CET)" in time for the February meeting.